CTV Montreal maintains its dominance in the ratings race

If more programming from its competitors is threatening the long dominance of CTV Montreal, that hasn’t showed up yet in the ratings. In data released to members this week by BBM Canada, the station’s flagship 6 p.m. newscast beat out its closest competitor by 10-1, capturing 119,000 adult viewers on average and a 57.6 per cent market share, meaning more than half of English Montrealers watching TV at that time were watching CTV News.

Not only does that make it the top-rated local newscast, but the top-rated show overall in Montreal’s English market, even beating Canada’s most-watched television show, The Big Bang Theory. CBC Montreal’s 6 p.m. newscast was a distant second at 11,300 adult viewers or a 5.5 per cent share. Global Montreal is even further behind with only 4,100 viewers on average, good enough for a two per cent share.

The ratings are about the same during other times, with CTV News having a 46 per cent share weekends at 6, a 52 per cent share weekdays at noon and a 37 per cent share at 11:30 p.m. CBC Montreal added weekend newscasts and expanded its late-night news in 2012, but both attracted less than a six per cent share.

CTV also claims all of the top 10 shows in the Montreal English market, and 18 of the top 20.

The ratings, measured based on written diaries submitted by a sample of television viewers, reflect audiences for four weeks in October and November, during which all three stations aired special reports during their local news to try to boost their numbers.